He told me that "Science fiction movies show you a sign of things to come".

Being the science fiction nerd that I was, I took some interest in it. I have studied this over the years at my leisure and found some truth to his remark.

I will give you a visual history.

In 1869, Author Jules Verne published Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

In this novel Captain Nemo travels the world underwater in the only "nuclear powered submarine", the Nautilus
On January 17th of 1955, The USS Nautilus SSN-571 went underway for the first time on Nuclear power. Today most Navy subs are powered by nuclear energy.
Star Trek is part of science fiction history, but is cited by series creator Gene Roddenberry as being influenced by the film Forbidden Planet (a film which I frequently reference because I believe it is so timeless!) Forbidden Planet released in 1956, ten full years before Star Trek was unleashed upon the public in 1966. In Forbidden Planet, United Planets Cruiser C-57D has been dispatched to locate the fate of a colony dispatched 20 years earlier to a planet called Altair IV. What they find is the only surviving member Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira have warned them to turn away. After further investigation the crew finds that the previous colony discovered a large computer left behind by an ancient society that allows for people to simply wish what they want to exist. However, the ancient society was more advanced than the colonists, yet died in one night. The reason they died was that the sub-conscience mind was prone to nightmares. And when hooked into the the computer, the nightmares would come to life and kill any life it came into contact with. This concept is borrowed from the Shakespeare's "The Tempest". This film is beautiful, but dated. The set art is amazing, and the story is very deep for a science fiction film of this time. This story has been borrowed even since. Also, most of what happens in this movie is the basis for early Star Trek, including the Navel ranks, the weapons, the use of transporters, and even the fact that they fly around in a flying saucer. In Star Trek, The USS. Enterprise NCC-1701, was basically a flying saucer with two large engines attached to it. As a former Navy man, I must admit that I found much of the lore of Star Trek quite similar to that of the Navy. While underway certain officers would where colored turtle neck shirts. The color designation was based on what department they were working out of, and what function they served. Yellow, Red, and Blue...is exactly the same as the naval designations.

Communicators?

Say what you want. It is a CELL PHONE! Even The most juvenile and early cell phone resembles it's looks. Check it out: My dad had one of these early babies. And even later...Nextell had the same technology.

Blue Tooth?

I always thought it was funny when Uhura had that stupid spring in her ear.

These days I wonder if Nichelle Nichols uses a blue tooth headset. I do.

In 1987 a film called Predator depicted a remote special forces team who is dispatched to find a cabinet minister and his aid, only to find out they are being hunted by an alien warrior. The "alien warrior" aka "predator" has been the basis for many, many video games. More importantly, the Predator has the ability to cloak itself so well it renders itself nearly invisible to it's prey. Many generals and military types wanted this type of cloaking technique for our current military. It is still being worked on, and near completion. We have seen this technology used several times in video games.

Laserguns, like in Star Trek and Star Wars, will probably be next. I guess their right when they say "Where there is a will, there is a way," when it comes to human ingenuity.

Unfortunately there are some real problems with making a laser with enough power to actually be a weapon.

Show spoiler

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1) power output to size ratio
Basically, anything nowadays that is in handheld or a flashlight sort of form won't have but maybe enough power to ignite, burn and cut slowly.
2) Efficiency input power to laser output
as amplifiers go, lasers are poor by electronic standards. Though their efficiency is climbing and has been steadily as we speak, we are still not near enough to a point of manufacturing blasters and phasers.
3) expense and classificaiton
lasers as a hobby is pretty expensive (trust me), so you can probably imagine what it takes to manufacture a rugged working weapon. Inefficiency makes it all the more expensive to operate. Currently the only laser that is a weapon by itself is a chemical excimer laser, which obviously only the military really have access to in that level of power--else it's just lab work at low power for these. Other weapons actively utilizing other type of lasers probably are particle beam accelerators using the laser to blast a channel in the atmosphere--which I have little idea how they are constructed or how they work. So I know about as much as the next citizen: Jack $*** except what is released in periodicals and publications.

But please feel free to buy one of the various color handheld lasers you wish--just make sure you keep it out of eyes of people and animals... and pointed away from aircraft or police.

Problem is, a small-arms laser would only really be more useful than a projectile weapon at a very long distance. Even then, I'd be tempted to say that I'd still rather use a traditional rifle, and have to judge timing, as a laser would make a very clean hole in the enemy, and clean holes don't kill as much as gnarly ragged ones. I'm assuming that it would just be a quick split-second burst, not sustained laserage, due to power reqs.

I suppose they could make good anti-air or anti-tank weapons though, if sustained fire were possible to any extent.

Invisibility would rock though. I'd probably reenlist if only to try it out. <--Somewhat serious.

^Now that's interesting. Didn't know stuff like that was for legal sale, thanks for the link GTA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTA:SWcity

Unfortunately there are some real problems with making a laser with enough power to actually be a weapon.

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

1) power output to size ratio
Basically, anything nowadays that is in handheld or a flashlight sort of form won't have but maybe enough power to ignite, burn and cut slowly.
2) Efficiency input power to laser output
as amplifiers go, lasers are poor by electronic standards. Though their efficiency is climbing and has been steadily as we speak, we are still not near enough to a point of manufacturing blasters and phasers.
3) expense and classificaiton
lasers as a hobby is pretty expensive (trust me), so you can probably imagine what it takes to manufacture a rugged working weapon. Inefficiency makes it all the more expensive to operate. Currently the only laser that is a weapon by itself is a chemical excimer laser, which obviously only the military really have access to in that level of power--else it's just lab work at low power for these. Other weapons actively utilizing other type of lasers probably are particle beam accelerators using the laser to blast a channel in the atmosphere--which I have little idea how they are constructed or how they work. So I know about as much as the next citizen: Jack $*** except what is released in periodicals and publications.

Yeah I know, but seriously though, I would love to see an actual working model in my lifetime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTA:SWcity

But please feel free to buy one of the various color handheld lasers you wish--just make sure you keep it out of eyes of people and animals... and pointed away from aircraft or police.

@ Sam D. I always thought there could be military uses for what is essentially a cyclotron on steroids. Used to just be another means of producing certain radiation types previously unfeasible mostly for scientific research and medical experimentation.

@ purifier: Have fun but please don't get yourself or anybody else hurt or killed. If need be, drop me a line if you're seriously considering purchasing and using any of it.

We'll murder them all, amid laughter and merriment...except for the few we take home to experiment!

Wht is going to be next is either going to be hover cars like the ones from SW or robots from the movie IRobot

Yeah I think the military was working on something similar to hover vehicles, at one time or another. May have been back in the late 1950's or early 60's, not sure. But I don't think they could ever get the things higher than 2 feet off the ground. Of course they were just starting out and trying to use fans back then. Who knows how far they've gotten with the technology pertaining to hover type vehicles, in this day and age.

yah, technology progresses. I know that is a big shock to everyone here but its true. If you really needed this thread to enlighten you, then you are already quite beyond help.

What really is interesting, are the things that film did NOT predict.

Who would have though that at one point, we would have in invisible limbo which housed not only all the information in the world, but those whom choose to seek it.

While we're on the topic of pedantic condescension, the internet is very much a physical construct, not a limbo, nowhere near all the world's information is stored in it, and I'm not housed in it to any extent. One could also argue that it actually was predicted by H.G. Wells, Paul Otlet, and even Mark Twain. Just sayin'.

Though I do agree that it's interesting to see what scifi didn't predict, if you look deep enough and hard enough, there really isn't much.

Yeah I think the military was working on something similar to hover vehicles, at one time or another. May have been back in the late 1950's or early 60's, not sure. But I don't think they could ever get the things higher than 2 feet off the ground. Of course they were just starting out and trying to use fans back then. Who knows how far they've gotten with the technology pertaining to hover type vehicles, in this day and age.

Actually, they have come up with technology using magnetism to levitate things. The problem is, they don't have a way to control it, so If we were to levitate tanks and stuff with the technology today and no supports to keep it in place, it would go flying off somewhere probably.